A Blog Dedicated To Beer and Food Pairings, Baking, Cooking, and Recipes.

12/18/2008

From Russia, With Love

My job is the most amazing job ever. I get to plan and host beer dinners around the city of Boston for BeerAdvocate.com.

One of the places I do most of my beer dinners and tastings at is Upstairs On The Square in Harvard Square. Matt P. Reiser the Wine Director, whom is a great friend of mine, allows Beer Advocate to really do whatever we like when it comes to beer pairings. We have had a lot of fun and much success with some of the events.

Head Chef Steve Brand, has an excellent knowledge of food and loves beer. When we put our heads together along with Matt, we have come up with some extraordinary ideas. Sadly one of the more amazing dinners I hosted with them, called the Aztec Beer Dinner, a fusion of Aztec culture ingredients in modern day preparation paired with beer, I didn't get any pictures to blog about. All I can tell you is that it was out of this world. But I don't know if it was better than the Beer and Chocolate dinner where we paired every course with beer, cheese, and chocolate.

The Russian Beer Dinner came to us as an idea from a personal friend of mine named Abby Williamson Fisher who was attending the Aztec Beer Dinner and thought it might be a good idea to try and host a Russian pairing. Me and Matt both agreed provided she would discuss the culture and translate for us. The Russian language is by far one of the hardest I have ever tried to attempt. Abby who has spent A few years between Russia and Georgia agreed to help us plan. We decided to use only Russian and Russian style beers to match the cuisine.

Initially I did not want to go the traditional route with this dinner. I heard many people curious about the idea of Russian food, but did not want to see borscht on the menu. I personally like beets and especially borscht. So too bad for them, we chose a traditional menu and sold the dinner out anyway.Welcoming Course: Mushroom and Onion Plemini paired with Kvass

Beer: Kvass (4 different commercial varieties)Style: KvassABV: 0-2.0%

Our welcoming course was a little bit funny. Originally we had intended for the welcoming course to be Pierogi. Not to be mistaken for the Polish Perogies. The Polish version is type of dumpling generally stuffed with potato and many variations from there. It varies all over Eastern Europe and Slavic countries. We were aiming for this particular recipe. A bread pocket filled with mushrooms and onions. Pierogi = yeast bread pocket, while perogie = unleavened dough pockets. In the roughest sense of the word. Small confusion but one that turned out to be just as amazing.

{Click all smaller images to enlarge}

{Image via Wikipedia}

Instead of the bread pockets, we were served Plemini's instead. The flavor profile was the same. Mushrooms and onions.

{Image via From Russia, With Love tasting}

This course was served with a Russian drink called Kvass. Kvass is basic origins of beer. It is around 5,000 years old, made from hardened bread or croutons and water. It ferments and can be flavored with fruits and spices.

{Image via Wikipedia}

This is how the Sumerians discovered beer over 9,000 years ago. They are the first ones to brew beer. The women primarily were the worlds first brewers. The Egyptian's also carried on with this tradition of drinking fermented bread drinks. At some point it was carried into Europe and Eastern Europe and many styles and variations like Kvass still exist. Kvass is low in alcohol and is still made today in home kitchens. You can even find kvass carts around Russia. Today it is also commercially produced like soda. The commercial variations have no alcohol or very little. And even the homemade versions are very low in alcohol content.

So with the origins nearly as old as the original beer makers, it was only natural that we use this product. They have an awesome raisin-y taste with deep bread notes. It's mot unusual and not what you would expect if you ahve never tasted Kvass before. But it was sweet and delicious. They made for an excellent pair with mushrooms and onions.

The First Course: Traditional Blini's with Caviar and Russian Budweiser

Beer: Bud Style: LagerABV: 5%

In the middle of planning for this dinner, I instantly thought about a brewer I had met in Germany. I was on a beer writers tour of Southern Bavaria. One of the places we stopped off at was the Anheuser-Busch hop farms. It was there where they showed us commercial hop farming and prepared for us an amazing beer dinner all paired with A-B products. This is when I met Paul King. The Brew Master of Budweiser Russia. We were drinking Budweiser made from London. I noticed it was different. Darker in color, more amber, maltier and sweeter, and no husky, grainy taste on the finish. It was actually very good.

Thinking of how nice Paul was in Germany, I wondered if Bud from Russia would taste different and if there was a way to get some for this dinner. I was almost sure it would be better than ours. I asked my husband (Todd Alstrom) to contact A-B and see if they would actually send us some for this tasting. Well they did and it was amazing. The label looks like it is American, but the back had all the Russian writing on it. And the incorporated some sampling labels on to it including when they sent it out to us.

This was hard for me to imagine because it was a beer I had never tried before. I was banking on it being malty like the version from London. The thought behind it was that the sweet malt would help balance with the creme fraiche, the egg and salty caviar tastes.

We did a classic blini set up with boiled egg and creme fraiche, only the blini was made from corn. The caviar was a flying fish roe. The Budweiser was malty and did not have that nasty grain taste that the American version has. It was delicious and crisp and very fresh. And it really went well with the corn blini's. It drew out the natural sweetness on the blini and allowed the individual flavors of the roe to come out and play without overwhelming the dish. Excellent, Excellent, Excellent pairing.

The Second Course: Traditional Borscht with Baltika #9

Beer: Balitka #9 ExtraStyle: Euro Strong LagerABV: 8%

This was another worrisome course for me in the planning stages. I wasn't sure of this pairing until I actually tasted it.

When thinking of borscht the first thing that comes to mind is beets. Traditionally borscht is made with a meat stock and has actual pieces of meat in it. It's a very hearty, warming, and comforting soup. Russians have to contend with some seriously cold temperatures. They need foods rich, hearty and warming to help them contend with the weather.

In doing research for this paring I kept coming across information about weisse beers with borscht. Sure that makes sense if it was vegetarian and beet heavy. But real borscht has meat and meat stock in it. I couldn't see this paring working very well together. Taste is subjective, but still I wanted to ace this one. Also in looking at reviews for Baltika #8 (wheat beer) on Beer Advocate, I was not thrilled with this prospect.

I had to find a way to incorporate Balitka into the dinner, based on what a force they are in Russia today. They are one of the largest breweries in Russia and Europe. It's like denying Budweiser it's place in the American beer culture. It's that big.

I looked around for other Balika products that could fit for this pairing instead. I came across Baltika #9. The reviews on Beer Advocate were not as strong as I had hoped for despite having a decent rating. But the flavor profile was matching what I had in mind. Baltika #9 is a categorized as strong European lager. It's 8% in ABV. The reviews claimed it to be too sweet and boozy. I believe it scored mixed reviews because they didn't understand the style of strong lager or its purpose for the regions they tend to dominate. It's supposed to be big and warming with a lot of alcohol. Again it goes back to the Russians needing to stay warm in their climates. So naturally they are going to brew lagers bigger. Some of the reviewers dismissed this concept and went full on into reviewing this beer in an overly critical manner.

This beer had a coppery malty taste and very big and upfront sweetness, but not overwhelming as suggested by the reviews. The coppery malt took on the dill flavors from the cream and sugary beets like they were made for each other. This paring was a long shot for me because I haven't had the beer and was going against the majority of reviews and style suggestion. It more than paid off in the best ways possible. The meat in the stew was soft and added just the right touch of richness. The beer was not too sweet or alcoholic for this pairing. Usually if a beer is described as too boozy it can be hard to pair with the right food for fear that the alcohol will overwhelm the pairing. If you taste too much alcohol or one flavor dominates instead of marries with the paring, then it's a wrong pairing. This pairing was far from wrong and may have been one of the best courses according to some of the reactions and comments we heard from some of the attendees of this dinner.The Third Course: Beef Stroganoff with Victory Baltic Thunder

Once we decided that traditional was the way to go with this menu, we all suggested Beef Stroganoff for the main course. Sauteed or braised beef in a sour cream sauce.

Our version was not heavy on the sour cream but more about the perfected braised beef. It did have mushrooms and sat on a traditional bed of noodles. It was absolutely phenomenal despite my husbands stroganoff at home which is still the very best I have had.

We already knew we were going to use a Baltic Porter in some capacity for this dinner. It makes obvious sense. Baltic Porters are basically kicked up English porters. The Russians when visiting beer centric cultures like England, discovered these tasty brews. But to get them across the icy North Seas without freezing over, they had to make them stronger in alcohol. All over the Nordic countries you will find a variation of this beer and it will be stronger the it's original English style.

Victory's Baltic Thunder is a slightly modified version of a beer called Perkunos Hammer from Heavyweight Brewing Company. The short story is that Heavyweight closed and Victory picked up the rights to brew the beer. There was some issues with the name Perkunos Hammer, so they changed it to Baltic Thunder. Perkunos is the Baltic god of thunder in Nordic cultures.

The beer itself is very rich and full bodied, rich notes of molasses, toffee, chocolate, and roasted malts. Even hints of berries or fruit which is a classic flavor profile of Nordic variations of Baltic Porters. Less found in Eastern European versions.

Those flavors combined with the richness of the of the braised meat were a match made in heaven. Heavy meats and heavy beers with cold weather just make for a divine paring. The light cream was actually perfect in softening some of the heavier notes on the beer without totally subduing them.

Ptichye Moloko literally translates to Birds Milk. In Russia and Poland there are these candies that you can find every where made of marshmallow dipped in chocolate.

{Image via Wikipedia}

Vladimir Guralnik, head of pastry or confections at a restaurant in Russia called the Praga is famed for creating a luxurious cake version of this dessert.

I knew some how we had to incorporate this kind of dessert in to our dinner and in looking for the name of the candy, I found that there was a cake version of this. The pastry chef at UOTS, had made his version with a thick layer of chocolate to coat the cake, a layer of soft cake, mallow center, cake top. It came out better than I could have imagined. I was expecting cake bottom and a huge topping of the mallow and covered in chocolate. It looks pretty in that version, but the way ours was prepared, was much tastier.

Now considering how full and strong Imperial Stouts, I knew we would need to make sure that the chocolate coating was not thin like on the candy. It needed to be heavy. And then we needed something tart to off set all of the rich flavors and sugars. So we simply added tart strawberries to the plate. I believe they were simply made more tart with lemon juice based sauce. But I am not 100% sure on that.

Russian Imperial Stouts were brewed for the court of Catherine II of Russia. They again were originally from England but to make the transport and to satisfy the daily lifestyle of Russia it is brewed to be stronger. Imperial in beer terms usually means double, extra, or stronger.

Stone IRS, is no lightweight. It's one of the top rated beers on Beer Advocate. It is very bold, robust, in your face, and yet balanced at the same time. Like the porter earlier tasted, this has big roasted malt flavors, chocolate, and fruit flavors. The difference is that the tastes are all forward in the palate and yet smoothed out but the alcohol of this beer. It's quite strong but very smooth.

All three parts to the dessert were heavenly. The chocolate and the beer married perfectly, while the strawberries toned the overwhelming chocolate and beer flavors to allow the cake and mallow to not be trumped.

All in all this was a spectacular beer dinner. The pairings were amazing. The effort put in by Steve Brand and his team along with Abby who toasted us at each course with a Russian toast, to Matt Reiser whom allows us to continue to do these killer pairings.